Greenock Telegraph | News | Farm sale plan rejected

Friday, 29th August, 2008

Published: Saturday, 10th May, 2008 12:00

Farm sale plan rejected

By Elaine Bowers

PROPOSALS have been ditched for a controversial sale of three farms owned by Inverclyde Council.

Councillors on the regeneration committee voted unanimously not to sell 6,500 acres of farmland within Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.

The council had been considering the future of Garvocks and Dowries Farm, Killochend Farm and Hardridge Farm.

Clyde Muirshiel Park had opposed the sale, saying the farms should remain in ‘continued public ownership’.

The farms are leased to tenant farmers and two of the farms fall under Special Protection Area (SPA) status.

Hardridge is in the SPA, which is designated under European special protection legislation.

Most of Garvocks and Dowries also fall under the area, while Killochend borders its boundary.

The protection area was designated a site of special scientific interest last year.

The park authority compiled a report into the implications of a sale after the council launched a consultation. The report recommended the farms should not be sold.

A final decision on the sale was taken in private at the regeneration committee. Council bosses said before the meeting that ‘a very full report’ was going to the committee, including the park authority’s comments.

Councillors agreed at the meeting not to comment in public about the decision and a terse council statement said: “As part of its overall asset management review, the council has agreed to the continued retention of its farm assets.”

Fears had been expressed that the park authority had not been properly involved in the consultations.

Questions raised by local Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Alan Blair, were not allowed to be discussed at a full meeting of the council, a decision he branded as ‘ludicrous’.

He declined to comment after the regeneration committee meeting.

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